Professor:       Dr. H. K. Ng      Office: 416 Keen    Phone: 644-4558  hkng@fsu.edu

Welcome:
       We're happy to have you with us this semester. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to gain an understanding of the basic concepts of classical physics, which include motion (or mechanics), fluids, heat, sound, light and thermodynamics. It explains physics in interesting manner that is accessible and clear. It shows to students how useful physics is in their own lives and future professions. This course uses algebra and trigonometry, not calculus.

Textbook:

This course uses the Textbook:  Douglas C. Giancoli, "Physics", 6th edition, Prentice-Hall        ISBN 0-13-060620-0 (hardcover, both semesters)        or ISBN 0-13-035256-X (paperback, covers this term only) Class Meetings: Each student is registered for four class meetings. Two lectures and one recitation session each week : Monday, Wednesday and Friday,  in 101 Richards Building (UPL) from 11:00 am to 12:05 pm One laboratory session: one day per week from 3 hours, can be Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, depending on section you are registered for, in 105, or 107 Richards Building (UPL).      Notice that the registration process for this class requires that every student must be registered separately     both for the lecture section and a lab section to be properly registered for in this course.

      The lectures will primarily be used to present new course concepts, along with experimental demonstrations, and discussion of problem solving tools and examples.  Lecture highlights will be posted on the course web page. These highlights will indicate the exact topic areas covered during lecture and which textbook sections they were drawn from.  However, these highlights do not contain all the information and explanations which will be presented during the lectures. Therefore, students are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures, since it is a demonstrated fact that there is a strong correlation between lecture attendance and student performance. To underline this statement, you can earn bonus points by attending the lectures and the recitation sessions.

      The recitation sessions will focus on working through assigned problems (either from the LON-CAPA homework sets or from the recommended textbook problems), and on problem solving skills. You will be expected to participate in class discussions via the Personal Response System and will contribute towards the bonus points.   These sessions will also be particularly valuable, since the exams will consist of problems very similar to those that will be discussed in the recitation sessions.

Calculation of the Course Grades:
      A student will have completed the course and will be eligible for a grade greater than ''F'' only if the student does the following:

• Attempts the mini-exams and the final exam;
• Attends all laboratory sessions and submits satisfactory reports to the lab instructor for each session.

The final course grade will be calculated using the grades from the best 4 of 5 bi-weekly mini-exams, the pre-lab exercises, the laboratory reports, the LON-CAPA homework sets, and the final examination. Your final grade will be calculated according to the following weighting:

Bonus points:
       A system of bonus points will be implemented, which allows each student the opportunity to have four extra percentage points (4$\%$) added to his/her final accumulated grade. To earn the bonus points, you must be actively involved in class participation through answering questions using the personal response system (PRS). Details of exactly how the bonus point system will work will be outlined during a lecture.  Each student is responsible for bringing his or her own functioning, registered, PRS transmitter to class every day, and using it to answer the requested problems. You cannot earn those points without it. 
      Your final grade will be based on your total score in the four areas listed above (plus extra credit). The total course average will be converted into a letter grade, using the table shown below.

LON-CAPA (Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach) Homework Sets and Recommended Textbook Problems:
       Completing the weekly LON-CAPA problem set and attempting and becoming competent in doing the recommended textbook questions and problems listed for each week in the syllabus are the best ways to prepare for the mini-exams and the final exam. The LON-CAPA problem set will be available early Monday morning and must be completed and turned in online at http://loncapa.fsu.edu/ by the required deadline (at 11:59 pm, the day depends on the week) to receive credit.  The recommended textbook questions and problems will not be turned in for grading, but they are a useful resource for completing the LON-CAPA assignments and emphasizing the physics subjects we consider important.
        In addition... you will be required to work out completely, showing your method of solution, two of the problems (either LON-CAPA or end-of-chapter) and hand them in after the recitation session. The solution must be your own own, however, it must show all the steps. (See your text for examples.) Any copying from another student will result in a zero for both. These will be graded by a teaching assistant and five points are allocated for this effort.
       The examination problems will be based on the subjects covered in both the LON-CAPA and the textbook problem sets.  Remember to try the ''Blank Paper Test'' in your examination preparation: try to solve the problems yourself first without looking at the solutions; if you need to use the solutions for help (which many times you might), go back and try the same problems again afterward without looking at the solution during your work to see if you have learned how to do them on your own. Memorizing a sequence of steps of a particular solution will not help you, since the goal of this course is to teach you the physics concepts and how to apply them in different situations, not simply to memorized poorly understood recipes for plugging in equations. The LON-CAPA problems, the textbook questions and problems, and strategies for problem solving will be discussed during each Friday's recitation lecture.

Final Examination:
       The final exam will be held on Friday, August 8 at 11:00 am-12:05 pm. The final exam is cummulative and you must take the final exam in order to pass the course, no exceptions.

• Five mini-exams will be given during the semester. Each exam contributes 10% $$towards the final score. Four of the five exams will count toward the final grade, with the low grade being dropped.
• These mini-exams will be given on the designated day (see schedule below) and each will take the first 30 minutes of the lecture time.
• The material covered in each exam will be that specified in the syllabus and based on concepts related to the recent LON-CAPA assignments and recommended textbook questions and problems.
• No make-up exams will be given.  Students who cannot attend one of the five-mini exams for any reason -- medical reasons, court dates, death in the family, in prison, important frisbee lessons, etc. will have that miss count toward the low dropped grade; any further misses will be counted as a zero on that test. The only exceptions to this rule are (1) university mandated travel, and (2) military service, and for both of these you must notify your lecture professor before the exam, and make up the exam within two weeks of the original exam date.  A word to the wise....proper documentation will be required.
• Students arriving late to the test will be required to submit their exams by the same deadline as the rest of the class.
• Each student is responsible for bringing a working calculator to each exam. No sharing is allowed.  You will not be allowed to use your cell-phone as a calculator, because your cell-phone is not allowed to be turned on in a test-room.
• Do not program formulae into your calculator - this is cheating and will be treated as such.
• Don't cheat. the first cheat on an exam results in a grade of zero points for that exam, the second results in an "F" for the course. Remember the FSU Honor Code.
• Any questions you have with the grading of the exams must be resolved within 2 weeks of the hand-back date.

• Textbook: An excellent source of information. Read it, and work problems at the end of each chapter.
• Classes: Attend lectures and recitations. Ask questions, and get involved in the discussion.  What you retain from these classes may surprise you.
• Professor's Office Hours/Tutorial Sessions: Make use of the scheduled office hours for help with homework problems and other matters that arise during the course. Other times may be arranged by calling ahead. Please don't hesitate to call or e-mail us at any time. My office hours are on Tuesdays from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
• Physics Department Consultation Sessions: A graduate student is available to assist you with homework problems and preparing for the exams. The times for these sessions will be announced later.

Course Information and LON-CAPA on the World-Wide-Web:
      The class web page is an extremely useful source of information for this course.  You can get most of the web content via the Physics Department homepage at http://www.physics.fsu.edu/ and clicking on the Undergrads icon, then clicking on Physics Courses web pages link, then choosing PHY2053C from the menu of courses.  This syllabus, a link to the LON-CAPA web pages, and other information related to this course can be found there.  In order to read many of the files on the web pages, you will need to have an Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. You can download the software free of charge from the Adobe web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
       In order to attempt LON-CAPA assignments, you also must have access to the web. There are numerous computer labs on campus and in the libraries. The Physics Department also has a number of computers that may be used for LON-CAPA (e.g. in every classroom in UPL). You need your acns garnet user name and password to log on-to LON-CAPA at http://loncapa.fsu.edu/.

Some Sensible Advice:
      We want everyone to have fun doing well in this course. Unfortunately some people find doing physics rather difficult. Below are a few tips which might help out:  Take them seriously!!

• This course is no pushover, physics is based on understanding, not remembering. We will do all we can to help you, but you have to be prepared to put some serious effort in to make sure you really understand the concepts. Only you know if you really understand something or not! Remember the "blank paper test''! Try it on some additional problems to test if you have understood the concepts.
• Attend all lectures, and the recitation sessions.  It is a demonstrated fact that there is a strong correlation between lecture attendance and student performance, and you can earn bonus points by attending the lectures!
• The mini-exams form the most important component of the course. In order to prepare for the exams make sure you understand and can do all the LON-CAPA problems and the recommended homework problems.
• In answering any problem, always ask yourself, "Is the answer I just worked out sensible?''. Remember to put units in.
• Use the book, you paid good money for it. Read the chapter (or sections) before it is covered in class. While you may not understand the materials after the frist reading, they will be clearer on subsequent exposure. Learning often involves repetitive processes. The Study Guide can also be quite useful.
• Find a study partner. We strongly encourage students to study together.
• When studying together, don't always be the one having ideas explained to you. Try explaining ideas to your friends. Surprizingly, the one doing the explaining is always the one who learns more by the process.
• Finally, don't give up or sit for hours in vain trying to do the homework. Come and see me and ask questions, usually you will be much closer than you think to being able to solve a problem.
• If you are seriously thinking about dropping the course at any point, please come and talk to me (Dr. Ng) first.

Immanuel Kant (1784): Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
David Lind and Ingo Wiedenhoevor (2006): Do not use the CAPA-Underground!!

ADA statement:
      Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should register with, and provide documentation to, the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) and bring a letter from SDRC to Dr. Ng indicating your needed academic accommodations. Please do this during the first week of class.

A Note about the Master Table:
      The following table outlines the week-by-week flow of the course, including the chapter covered, the laboratory project for the week, the mini-exam schedule and material covered. You will also see listed two sets of homework problems: (a) the LON-CAPA sets, which must be done because it is part of your final course grade; and (b) the recommended textbook problems and questions, which do not need to be handed in. We have chosen the textbook problems to further emphasize the physics principles which are important. They provide a useful resource to enhance your understanding of each weekly chapter, to help with the LON-CAPA assignment, and to act as exam preparation material.